The philosophy of Geocaching Australia is "free and open" which is the desire of the founders for a geocaching website where there will never be mandatory payment for access to geocache data and the data of the website can be openly shared to other websites. Data is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 deed. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/ This is agreed to when a geocacher lists their geocache at Geocaching Australia.

Future development and game changing enhancements to the website are referred to the senate for a decision on the strategic outcomes presented by each new development or enhancement. Major decisions in terms of the direction of the website should be proposed to the senate who will help to formulate the acceptance or rejection of the position to be adopted and guide the website towards achieving that goal. This is done though the Geocaching Australia Senate forum. The role of Senator is not onerous and decisions are only likely to be taken a few times a year.

The senate will be formed by members from each state and territory in Australia as well as the North and South islands of New Zealand and the Geocaching Australia website developers. This will result in a maximum of 10 senators representing two countries plus the website developers. A state, territory or island need not be represented, but should a state, territory or island be not represented, they will continue unrepresented until the next election. In the event of a senator standing down, that state, territory or island will continue unrepresented until the next election.

Senators will serve a term of 12 months or until a new Senate election is held. Senators may stand aside at any time. Senators are eligible for re-election for every election. Nominations will be called for approximately 1 month prior to elections. Nominations must come from the nominee. If there are fewer than 10 nominations then one state, territory or island may be represented by more than one senator. If there are more than 10 nominations then a vote will be taken for any state, territory or island where there is more than one nomination. The senator will be elected on a "first past the post" result.

Governance of the website and the way that Geocaching Australia continues in the Australian geocaching space will be a collaborative effort between the senate and the developers. Voting in the Senate will be on a "first past the post" result. In the event of a tie further discussion and voting will take place.

When 50% +1 or more of the senators and developers choose an option, it will be considered a decision. Senators may "opt out" of voting, however their "opt out" vote will not be taken into consideration. Senators may not proxy their vote to another senator. e.g. If only 7 senators vote and there are 4 FOR and 3 AGAINST, then the FOR vote will be considered to the the decision even though there are senators who did not express a preference either way.

Enhancements to the functionality of the website where a function exists do not need approval of the senate. Enhancements to the functionality of the website where a function does not currently exist may be provided to the senate for review and discussion. Concepts for rewards programs shall be provided to the senate in confidence for review and discussion. Games do not need approval of the senate. Funding of the website will be via voluntary donations or from the profit on the sale of token goods through the shop. Items for the shop do not need approval from the senate.

Other administrative roles are not senatorial position although they may be filled by senators if the senator volunteers.

If you are interested in nominating yourself for a Senate role, indicate your nomination in this thread. If you would like to promote yourself, do so at the time you nominate.

SELF nominations ONLY please.

Senators will be announced or elections will commence around Mid June 2017 for a July 2017 to June 2018 period.

Hi I would like to self nominate for a Senate position for Western Australia. I have been a member since 2013 and i spend a lot of time caching GA caches as i enjoy the huge variety of cache types on offer in Geocaching Australia. I have cached in WA, SA and Victoria and the variety of caches and foremost the sites and places i have visited and the history i have learnt in this journey has been incredible and outstanding. I would really love to promote my thoughts as mentioned above in regard to sites, history and places in GA to the wider caching community as Geocaching Australia certainly has a lot more to offer in this great country of ours. I was introduced to Geocaching Australia and helped a lot by Firnsy and i have loved GA caching a lot over the last 4 years. I am keen to be a Senator in WA so i can promote GA to the wider community and help new cachers where i can. I also hold a Mayoral Royalty for Rottnest Island. ThankyouDerek Bilney aka dezzabills

I'd like to renominate for NZ. Have been in a bit of a caching hiatus since moving to NZ, but hoping to turn that around soon and start to engage with the caching community here and maybe stir up a bit of interest in GCA cache types and activities. I will also make an effort to engage more with the senate than I have in the current term.

I would like to nominate myself for the Tasmanian senate position. I moved to Australia 5 years ago now and have been slowly getting into GCA, my GC finds still are a large part of my finds but i'm now finding I do days of pure GCA caching, i can see why cachers are unwilling to do GCA as I have been there myself and learning from this I am more than happy to promote GCA to GC cachers and work with them to make them have the realisation I did that a find is a find no matter what listing site it is on.

Before this fact comes out in the wash I would like to let everyone know I'm a POM and didn't steal a loaf bread to get here, just want to put my dark past out there up front

There are 10 positions up for grabs, 8 for Australia and 2 for New Zealand.The following nominations have been received.Richary - New South Walesziggiau - New South Wales (state of residence)dezzabills - Western AustraliaChwiliwr - Western AustraliaJ_&_J - South AustraliaLaighside Legends - South Australiacrew 153 - QueenslandWazzaAndWenches - Victoriafirnsy - New ZealandSol de Lune - ACTstainless-steel-rat - Tasmania

This puts us one senator over the limit and we should have a run off for NSW, WA and SA. This would result in us having only 8 senators as 3 would be eliminated. Rather than have 8 senators, this year we will vary the rule and have 11. As we have no written constitution, we are free to vary rules as we see fit.

Welcome to the senate. The new senators will be contacted shortly and will be granted access to the hidden senate forum where items of a commercial nature may be discussed.

Thanks for your interest and we look forward to another year of excitement, change and growth in our game and Geocaching Australia.